Episode 48, Our First Live Show: Capturing the Voices of Children with Betsy Bird

The Secrets of Story Podcast · Live Show: Capturing the Nature of Children with Betsy Bird

Recorded Live at The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL, hosted by The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, James and I welcome the legendary Betsy Bird (my wife) to tackle a topic all three of us know something about: Capturing the Voices of Children in Your Writing. I argue that novels that feature truly authentic kids are by definition not children’s books, and James and Betsy debate me on that.

Thanks to those who came out on Wednesday!

James, Betsy and I had a great time recording the first ever live episode of The Secrets of Story Podcast at The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL last Wednesday.  (And thanks to my brother-in-law Andrew Atienza, who you can see in the back doing the sound!)  We’ll post the episode soon.

Come Out On Wednesday to Our First Secrets of Story Podcast Live Recording!

Please come out to Winnetka's bookstore The Book Stall on Wednesday (September 4th) from 6:30pm to 8pm to hear the first ever live recording of The Secrets of Story Podcast featuring usual co-host James Kennedy and special guest Elizabeth Bird, where we'll discuss the ways authors capture the voices of children. The Book Stall would love it if you could register in advance so they can get a headcount, but you can just show up, too! It's free!

Check out the 100th episode of Marvel Reread Club with Dan Santat!

Hi guys, sorry you haven’t heard much from me recently! I’ve been meaning to restart 37 Days of Shakespeare but I haven’t gotten around to it. In the meantime, I have exciting news! I stopped posting about my other podcast, Marvel Reread Club, on this blog because I decided to separate the two brands, but MRC has been going strong and now it’s reached the epic milestone of 100 episodes! Even more impressive, our guest for the 100th episode is National Book Award Winner Dan Santat!  Dan really opens up for us about his life, and he previews his hilarious new Incredible Hulk picture book. It’s a really fun conversation and I think it’s accessible even to people who haven’t read the comics we’re discussing and don’t care to. Check it out!

Soundcloud no longer let’s me embed the episodes, but you can find it here or here!

It’s our landmark 100th episode, with very special guest, National Book Award winner Dan Santat! We discuss the 1966 Annuals: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, Fantastic Four Annual #4, and Giant-Size Thor #2! Testiness! Anguish! Brawling! Check it out!

Episode 47: The Heroine's Labyrinth with Douglas A. Burton

The Secrets of Story Podcast · Episode 47: The Heroine's Labyrinth with Douglas A. Burton

We’re back! This time, we welcome author Douglas A. Burton to discuss his new book The Heroine’s Labyrinth! I blurbed it and said “The Heroine’s Labyrinth is filled with profound and unique observations on the topic of story structure, no matter what the gender of your protagonist. Burton closely analyzes a wide breadth of stories and proves his thesis that Joseph Campbell missed half the story.” James agrees and we dive into some of Douglas’s many interesting new archetypes!

Oh No, Emergency Reviews Needed!

Hi everybody!

Help, I have an emergency! I’ve written before about how proud I’ve always been that the average review on my first book was five stars on Amazon.  Well today, after eight years, it dipped down to 4.5!  This has destroyed me.  Could you please restore my devastated sense of self?  If you’ve never reviewed “The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers”, could you give it five stars today?  Thank you so very much!  Feel free to review it here.

And/or you can review my second book: “The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love” here.  Thank you again!

Both books are apparently easier to review on Goodreads, so please feel free to rate the first one or the second one there!

Maybe you like the audiobook of my first book? You can review the book on Audible. (Click on “More options”)

And/or you can review the second audiobook!

If you’re a fan of “The Secrets of Story Podcast”, I would love an iTunes review, especially because one of the featured reviews on this page is entitled “so-so” (I don’t see how you can do it here, but you can do it by searching for The Secrets of Story Podcast in the iTunes store, then clicking on Ratings and Reviews)

Or you can review that podcast on Audible! (Once again, click on “More Options”)

And while you’re on iTunes, you can also review “Marvel Reread Club”!

Or Review “Marvel Reread Club” on Audible!

At this point, it’s the end of a long day of reviewing Matt Bird stuff, so kick back, relax and watch the sunset. Thanks so much for any help you can give me!

Podcast Appearance on Fuse 8 n' Kate to discuss I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla-Sollew!

Fuse 8 n' Kate · Episode 312 - I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew

I had a wonderful time on the Fuse 8 n’ Kate podcast (run by my wife Betsy and her sister Kate) discussing my favorite picture book, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla-Sollew. At this link you’ll get bonus content! 

37 Days of Shakespeare, Day 18: Antony and Cleopatra

The Tragedie of Antonie, and Cleopatra , first broadcast May 8th, 1981

• Possibly written: 1606-1607. Possibly his 30th play.
• What’s it about? Antony, last seen in “Julius Caesar”, has become enamored of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and ignores his duties, but his co-ruler Octavian calls him home to help deal with various threats to Rome. Antony and Cleo eventually decide to rebel against Rome and both wind up dead.
• Most famous dialogue: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”
• Sources: Plutarch’s Lives, specifically Thomas North’s translation (which was an English translation of a French translation of the Attic Greek original.) Shakespeare takes whole passages, but also makes up some things.
• Best insult: Not a lot of great insults in this one. Just a few: “Ah, you kite”, “You have been a boggler ever”, “Triple-turn’d whore!”
• Best word: weet, foison
• Best production of this play I’ve seen: I read it in college but I’ve never seen it performed.
• Notable Names in the BBC Adaptation: Colin Blakely as Antony showed up in a lot of stuff. You’ve seen him before.

How’s the cast?

• The most disappointing thing about the cast is that they didn’t carry over Antony and Octavian from their production of Julius Caesar. I think this play becomes a lot more interesting when it’s treated as a sequel to that play, showing Antony’s devolution from manipulator to manipulated. As it is, Blakely does a good job and Jane Lapotaire ably brings to life Miller’s lusty interpretation of Cleopatra.

How’s the direction by Jonathan Miller?

• Miller produced the whole season and this is the third we’ve seen him direct, though apparently it was shot first. Unlike Timon of Athens, he doesn’t insist on Elizabethan dress, thankfully. Unfortunately, he said in interviews that he saw Cleopatra as just a “treacherous slut” and that dismissive attitude infects the production. If he’d had more respect for Cleopatra, it would have been a better show.

Storyteller’s Rulebook: You Can Only Draw It Out So Much

This production is almost three hours, but the war is over at the 2 hour mark. The final hour is dedicated to the two most overwrought death scenes in all of Shakespeare (or at least the half we’ve read so far). It plays a little camp in this version, and it would be hard to imagine it not seeming over the top unless it was cut down. If Shakespeare is to be believed, one of the world’s top causes of death is failing to understand that other people were faking their deaths. Just don’t fake your deaths, kids.

Storyteller’s Rulebook: Gendering Flaws is a Problem

Was Miller right to see Cleopatra as just a “treacherous slut”? Was there more in the text he could have plumbed? I would say there’s room for a more sympathetic portrait here, but it’s certainly true that Shakespeare slights the actual historic figure. The real Cleopatra was not only a political genius but a flat-out genius-genius. She spoke 8 languages! Shakespeare doesn’t give an actress room to play that.  His Cleopatra is undeniably petulant, flighty, and sex-obsessed (“Oh happy horse to bear the weight of Anthony!”) 

 Of course, his male heroes are all deeply flawed as well. It’s not like there are any moral paragons in Shakespeare, but because he has only two female title heroes (Juliet being the other), it becomes more of a problem that Cleopatra’s many flaws are gendered as female. Knowing how kick-ass the real Cleopatra was, it’s natural to want her to be more sympathetic here, even if that might be too much to ask of any of Shakespeare’s universally-flawed heroes.

Alright, that’s the end of Season 3 of the BBC show, and I’m once again barded out, so I will take another break for a while. I’m not crazy about Miller taking over the show and only loved one of the six in this season (Timon). There’s some great material coming up in Miller’s second and final season, so let’s see how he does with that.

37 Days of Shakespeare, Day 17: Timon of Athens

Timon of Athens, first broadcast April 16, 1981

• Possibly written: 1606, possibly his 32nd play
• What’s it about? Wealthy Athenian Timon throws lavish parties and gives generously to everyone who needs it, but when his bill comes due he tries calling in some favors and everyone abandons him. He has one last feast for his friends but serves them only water and condemns them, then goes to live in a cave where he spurns everyone and dies alone.
• Most famous dialogue: Not much, but Nabakov drew the title of one of his greatest novels from this play: “The moon’s an errant thief whose pale fire is snatched from the sun”
• Sources: It probably draws upon the twenty-eighth novella of William Painter's Palace of Pleasure, (the thirty-eighth novella of which was the main source for “All’s Well That Ends Well”) as well as  Plutarch’s Lives, Lucian’s Dialogues and a lost comedy on the subject of Timon, allusions to which survive from 1584. 
• Interesting fact about the play: In the 20th Century, scholars began to claim the play was co-written with an uncredited Thomas Middleton. It feels like pure Shakespeare to me (as opposed to “Henry VIII”, which felt co-written) but you never know.
• Best insults:
• Unpeaceable dog
• Thou disease of a friend
• Smiling, smooth, detested parasites, courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, you fools of fortune, trencher friends, cap and knee slaves, vapours and minute-jacks.
• Best word: A twofer: “unclew, I crave no pelf”
• Best production of this play I’ve seen: I had never seen nor read this play.
• Notable Names in the BBC Adaptation: A young Jonathan Pryce as Timon!

How’s the cast?

• Pryce is astonishingly good. This is my favorite performance in any of the 16 plays I’ve seen. Heartbreakingly naïve when rich and profoundly angry when poor, he’s always riveting to watch. Everybody else is great too, especially John Welsh as Flavius, the servant who finally breaks the bad news to him.

How’s the direction by Jonathan Miller?

• Miller produced this season and directed several episodes. For this one, he hired a different director who wanted Asian costumes. That would have been odd but interesting, but Miller, as we’ve seen in other plays, felt strongly, for some reason, that all of Shakespeare’s plays, no matter where or when they were set, should have Elizabethan dress, so he fired the director and took it over himself. As it turns out, the costuming is the only choice I disagree with in this otherwise brilliantly staged production. Astoundingly, almost the whole second half is shot from one angle with an almost still camera and almost still Timon, rejecting everyone who seeks him out on a stony beach, one by one. It shouldn’t work but it’s wonderfully intense.

Storyteller’s Rulebook: Not Everything Needs to Have a Happy Ending

When I began this project to cover all 37 adaptations, my biggest worry was about the 16 plays that I had never read nor seen. Were all of these plays unknown to me for good reason? Would I be slogging through 16 quagmires? That hasn’t been the case with the ones I’ve covered so far, since all the new ones have been watchable, but none have been truly great. This changes that. This is a perfect play, right up there with Shakespeare’s best.

We’ve just covered four plays that were all supposedly comedies which were, for one reason or another, not very funny. I started this play, as with “The Winter’s Tale,” knowing nothing. Like that one, this one seemed like a tragedy, but I was prepared for this, too, to bizarrely swerve to comedy at any moment. It does not! This is our first pure tragedy since Hamlet and it is a welcome relief.

Avoid the temptation to tack a happy ending onto tragic material. Respect your audience. If it would end badly, let it end badly.

Storyteller’s Rulebook: Every Great Play is About Donald Trump

Shakespeare’s greatest quality is his timelessness, and the mark of a timeless play is that it can suddenly become very timely, even in the far-flung future of 2024.

One of the richest men of his day flaunts his wealth ostentatiously. When some bills unexpectedly come due, he goes to his fellow billionaires and entreats them to lend him the money, but they all turn him down. He tries to sell some property but realizes that it’s all mortgaged ten times over and his in name only. Does this sound familiar? What a delight to watch this play out in Shakespeare and in real life this week! Especially delightful because, in this version, he ends up dead.

 
Storyteller’s Rulebook: Add More Moments of Humanity

What can we add to Shakespeare? Will additions only subtract? Miller largely just trusts the text here but he makes a few tiny additions that are brilliant.

At Timon’s party, mime-like entertainers come out and prance around for the revellers, much to everyone’s amusement. Eventually the party breaks up and all of Timon’s friends drift off one by one, followed by Timon himself. As soon as the last rich person is gone, the ethereal entertainers suddenly abandon their postures and pounce on the abandoned feast, hungrily devouring it. This was not in the text.

It’s a rare laugh in a very serious production, but it’s also a very believable and human moment. To this day, we all feel like painted puppets of our wealthy overlords, looking for the chance to break character and stop performing, if only for a few desperate moments.